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Hotels taking advantage of Canada’s COVID-19 quarantine rules, some travellers allege – Global News

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When Natalia Pinzón boarded the flight for her trip to Toronto in March to start a first-year college program in the city, she was fully aware of Canada’s new quarantine rules that require incoming, international travellers to spend up to three days at a designated airport hotel while waiting for coronavirus test results.

What the 19-year-old Colombian woman said she didn’t realize until arriving at the hotel was that she would be charged more than four times the price she had been quoted in writing before boarding the airplane.

“I was expecting to pay $80 a night, but the quarantine package cost $360 a night,” Pinzón told Global News in an interview.

She said she and a family member were upfront when making the booking, explaining she was coming from outside the country and would need to pay the price applicable to incoming travellers under the new rules.

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Feds looking to add more hotels to list of approved coronavirus quarantine accommodations

But when the take-it-or-leave-it pricing proposition was put forward by the airport hotel when she checked in after travelling 20 hours from South America, Pinzón said she had no choice but accept it.

“I’m getting mad and stressed right now,” Pinzón said, reflecting on her experience.

It is similar to what other travellers have reported since the new quarantine policy took effect.

“I didn’t feel the price was justified, it was actually excessive,” said Suvit Yeung, a Canadian living and working in Europe until he flew home to Toronto in March for compassionate reasons.

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Travellers booking COVID-19 quarantine hotels report long wait times, lack of options

“It was necessary that I provide care and support for a family member facing a critical illness.”

Yeung spoke with Global News while completing a mandatory 14-day quarantine at a family home in the Toronto area.

He said he was also charged multiple times more for the hotel stay compared to what the hotel in Montreal originally quoted him.

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The higher daily rate at government-approved hotels is intended to cover lodging, meals, extra security, transportation and additional cleaning.

Read more:
Flying back to Canada? Here’s what you can expect at the new COVID-19 quarantine hotels

However, Yeung said except for food, he didn’t receive any other special benefits or services.

“There wasn’t deep cleaning, there wasn’t even hand sanitizer at the hotel where I stayed,” he said, adding the hotel had no additional security and he had to pay for his own taxi to the hotel from the airport terminal.

Both Yeung and Pinzón received negative COVID-19 test results within about 12 hours of their arrival. Once they had received clearances by email, they no longer were required by law to remain at their hotels.

However, under the rules, they were still forced to pay for three nights’ accommodation: hotels are not providing refunds.

“Why do I have to pay for three days when I’m negative? It doesn’t make sense,” Pinzón said.

Since she was obligated to pay anyway, she said she spent three nights at the hotel, as did Yeung, who had previously arranged a connecting flight to Toronto based on staying three nights.

The hotel quarantine requirement was considered long overdue by many Canadians who considered incoming travel too easy and too risky in a pandemic.

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Now, incoming travellers to Canada must show a negative COVID-19 test before boarding a flight to Canada, then test negative before leaving the airport quarantine, and finally test negative again prior to going out in public at the end of a 14-day quarantine.

“I think it’s important for people to understand that no one wants to travel unnecessarily in a pandemic,” Yeung said.

Read more:
Here’s what you can and can’t do during Ontario’s COVID-19 ’emergency brake’ shutdown

Canada’s quarantine rules may be misunderstood by American travellers who watch Fox News based on the recent comments of primetime host Tucker Carlson.

“Canada took a dramatic move toward legitimately dangerous authoritarianism,” Carlson intoned, warning the Fox News audience.

He went on to describe the mandatory hotel requirement, designed to limit the spread of coronavirus, as a form of internment.

“We assume that interning people is what Russia does, boring people is what Canada does. Suddenly, Canada is a flagrant violator of the most basic human rights,” Carlson concluded after incorrectly arguing that travellers would be placed in government facilities, not hotels.

While many travellers said they overpaid for their stays, got delivered sub-standard food and less-than-ideal service, no one claimed their hotels felt like a prison.

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Langford, Heim lead Rangers to wild 13-8 win over Blue Jays

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ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Rookie Wyatt Langford homered, doubled twice and became the first Texas player this season to reach base five times, struggling Jonah Heim delivered a two-run single to break a sixth-inning tie and the Rangers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 13-8 on Tuesday night.

Leody Taveras also had a homer among his three hits for the Rangers.

Langford, who also walked twice, has 12 homers and 25 doubles this season. He is hitting .345 in September.

“I think it’s really important to finish on a strong note,” Langford said. “I’m just going to keep trying to do that.”

Heim was 1-for-34 in September before he lined a single to right field off Tommy Nance (0-2) to score Adolis García and Nathaniel Lowe, giving Texas a 9-7 lead. Heim went to the plate hitting .212 with 53 RBIs after being voted an All-Star starter last season with a career-best 95 RBIs. He added a double in the eighth ahead of Taveras’ homer during a three-run inning.

Texas had 13 hits and left 13 men on. It was the Rangers’ highest-scoring game since a 15-8 win at Oakland on May 7.

Matt Festa (5-1) pitched 1 1/3 scoreless innings to earn the win, giving him a 5-0 record in 13 appearances with the Rangers after being granted free agency by the New York Mets on July 7.

Nathan Eovaldi, a star of Texas’ 2023 run to the franchise’s first World Series championship, had his worst start of the year in what could have been his final home start with the Rangers. Eovaldi, who will be a free agent next season, allowed 11 hits (the most of his two seasons with Texas) and seven runs (tied for the most).

“I felt like early in the game they just had a few hits that found the holes, a few first-pitch base hits,” said Eovaldi, who is vested for a $20 million player option with Texas for 2025. “I think at the end of the day I just need to do a better job of executing my pitches.”

Eovaldi took a 7-3 lead into the fifth inning after the Rangers scored five unearned runs in the fourth. The Jays then scored four runs to knock out Eovaldi after 4 2/3 innings.

Six of the seven runs scored against Toronto starter Chris Bassitt in 3 2/3 innings were unearned. Bassitt had a throwing error during Texas’ two-run third inning.

“We didn’t help ourselves defensively, taking care of the ball to secure some outs,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said.

The Blue Jays’ Vladimir Guerrero Jr. had a double and two singles, his most hits in a game since having four on Sept. 3. Guerrero is hitting .384 since the All-Star break.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Blue Jays: SS Bo Bichette (calf) was activated and played for the first time since July 19, going 2 for 5 with an RBI. … OF Daulton Varsho (shoulder) was placed on the 10-day injured list and will have rotator cuff surgery … INF Will Wagner (knee inflammation) was placed on the 60-day list.

UP NEXT

Rangers: LHP Chad Bradford (5-3, 3.97 ERA) will pitch Wednesday night’s game on extended five days’ rest after allowing career highs in hits (nine), runs (eight) and home runs (three) in 3 2/3 innings losing at Arizona on Sept. 14.

Blue Jays: RHP Bowden Francis (8-4, 3.50) has had two no-hitters get away in the ninth inning this season, including in his previous start against the New York Mets on Sept. 11. Francis is the first major-leaguer to have that happen since Rangers Hall of Famer Nolan Ryan in 1989.

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Billie Jean King set to earn another honor with the Congressional Gold Medal

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Billie Jean King will become the first individual female athlete to be awarded the Congressional Gold Medal.

Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania and Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey announced Tuesday that their bipartisan legislation had passed the House of Representatives and would be sent to President Joe Biden for his signature.

The bill to honor King, the tennis Hall of Famer and activist, had already passed unanimously in the Senate.

Sherrill, a Democrat, said in a statement that King’s “lifetime of advocacy and hard work changed the landscape for women and girls on the court, in the classroom, and the workplace.”

The bill was introduced last September on the 50th anniversary of King’s victory over Bobby Riggs in the “Battle of the Sexes,” still the most-watched tennis match of all-time. The medal, awarded by Congress for distinguished achievements and contributions to society, has previously been given to athletes including baseball players Jackie Robinson and Roberto Clemente, and golfers Jack Nicklaus, Byron Nelson and Arnold Palmer.

King had already been awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009. Fitzpatrick, a Republican, says she has “broken barriers, led uncharted paths, and inspired countless people to stand proudly with courage and conviction in the fight for what is right.”

___

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Account tweaks for young Instagram users ‘minimum’ expected by B.C., David Eby says

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SURREY, B.C. – Premier David Eby says new account control measures for young Instagram users introduced Tuesday by social media giant Meta are the “minimum” expected of tech companies to keep kids safe online.

The parent company of Instagram says users in Canada and elsewhere under 18 will have their accounts set to private by default starting Tuesday, restricting who can send messages, among other parental controls and settings.

Speaking at an unrelated event Tuesday, Eby says the province began talks with social media companies after threatening legislation that would put big tech companies on the hook for “significant potential damages” if they were found negligent in failing to keep kids safe from online predators.

Eby says the case of Carson Cleland, a 12-year-old from Prince George, B.C., who took his own life last year after being targeted by a predator on Snapchat, was “horrific and totally preventable.”

He says social media apps are “nothing special,” and should be held to the same child safety standards as anyone who operates a place that invites young people, whether it’s an amusement park, a playground or an online platform.

In a progress report released Tuesday about the province’s engagement with big tech companies including Google, Meta, TikTok, Spapchat and X, formerly known as Twitter, the provincial government says the companies are implementing changes, including a “trusted flagger” option to quickly remove intimate images.

— With files from The Associated Press

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17, 2024

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